Post-conference surveys indicate that successful networking is a key feature for our fast-paced, intimate, professional community gathering at the annual eTourism Summit.

Getting back to the office with a pile of business cards or dozens of name badge snapshots? Well, that’s another matter…

FYI – Update your LinkedIn app and take a close look at the search bar. There’s now a digitalized business card in your smartphone. This new feature, available in both the iOS and Android apps, makes use of QR codes to connect LinkedIn profiles instantaneously.

You’re not only carrying your our own personal QR code, but you also have the capability to scan others. (No more concerns about running out of business cards.) Once you scan someone, you teleport to their LinkedIn profile to connect; it’s a lot smoother than passing phones around.

P.S. While we’re on the subject, please make a mental note to send The Travel Vertical updates from your professional world. Our newsletter’s “Who You Know” articles on people in transition within the eTourism Community are always popular. Just use the “Contact Us” button at the footer.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are all banned in China. Eighty percent of Chinese consumers are using Baidu as the dominant search tool; Google gets 10 percent. Note that mid-2017, WeChat introduced news feed and search functions, reported by the Financial Times as a “direct challenge to Chinese search engine Baidu.”

What one billion monthly active users in China rely on is WeChat, an all-encompassing super app for instant messaging, photo sharing, shopping and travel research, booking and payments.

To check out a new PhocusWire Q&A on how travel brands and destinations are using WeChat to attract travelers, click here.

No question about it…April was a helluva ride for Facebook and the Facebook user community.

With U.S. congressional hearings behind him, an upbeat Mark Zuckerberg was back to work as normal. He addressed the company’s F8 developer conference on Tuesday in San Jose, California. Watching live online, The Travel Vertical picked up these highlights, in which the keyword was “building.”

More aggressively tackling privacy and hate-speech issues while continuing to build.

Building a “Clear History” option for users to scrub their accounts of data sent to Facebook via outside apps and websites.

Building a new dating site for your non-friends, one that friends cannot see without your OK. Note: shares of Match Group Inc., owner of Match.com, OKCupid, and Tinder shares fell 21% immediately.

Relief for app makers as Facebook returns to app review and approval, which had been stalled due to the urgency of privacy-related work.

New Instagram features for video chat and to allow posting information from outside apps directly to Instagram Stories where they remain for 24 hours.

Oculus Go, a cordless virtual reality headset, immediately made available in 23 countries, supporting 1,000 apps, games, and movies to download on the headset, starting out with 21 loaded. The U.S. price is $199 for 32GB and $249 for 64GB.

Messenger to get into multi-lingual conversation capabilities, starting with English-Spanish.

“If you can’t sell enough food and booze, try marketing the toilet,” writes The New York Post in pointing to an innovative trend in the restaurant business. The new-found cash can be as much as $3K-$5K per week, making a big dent in the rent for places like the rooftop restaurant at Hotel Chantelle on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

“Slammed by soaring costs for food, labor and rent, New York’s bars, restaurants and nightclubs are using a growing crop of third-party apps and services to rent out their dining rooms, coat-check areas and even their bathrooms to make extra cash.”

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Brian Acton is the co-founder of WhatsApp, purchased by Facebook three years ago for $19 billion. He’s only ever tweeted 74 times since 2009…only once during the past two years. He tweeted yesterday. Here’s what he had to say: